Reasoning Theorems of Success

There was a time before the recession when you didn’t have to analyze precisely what parts of your leadership message worked. Whatever you were saying seemed to get the job done; a PPT presentation full of facts, statistics and quotes. Perhaps you have been called to action with a company memo or a training mandate. Change initiatives were launched from above yet when the dust settled after the wagon train pulled out, the flame ebbed until an emissary was sent to puff on the embers. These were rational approaches, however, not very creative.

The disruptive changes of the new economy requires something different. Change can no longer be imposed, it must be facilitated. A strategy has emerged that persuasively delivers the content of dry analysis, linking it together into a compelling illustration of your goals for the future;
Storytelling.

Why this tactic? Persuading people to act in unfamiliar and uncomfortable ways as they navigate through the transformation you require has become the centerpiece of business activity today. Jobs, if they weren’t eliminated, are condensed. As a leader, you are faced with the task of making your point succinctly in minutes, not days. The content of your message must be replayed in the recipients and retold to others. Successful change relies on a work culture aligned with your mission, and armed with enough enthusiasm and clarity to influence each other in your absence.

The Purpose

The purpose of any story in business development is to establish trust between you and the listener. Your subordinates want to trust your abilities and plan. They want to make the organization “happen,” as much as you do. But to be reliable enough to garner their support, your method must emerge from a creative process that you can understand intuitively, and foster the respectful collaboration of whole, complex people. Gary Morris, CMO of Marketing Advocate, in Centerville, MA said it best: “Context is the key to adoption. Only authentic trust accrues into a predisposition to try anything, whether it’s a new product or a new idea.”

Your Cathedral

This new tool will take you beyond your comfort zone, into ambiguity. Allow me to provide some structure to your evolution as a storyteller. Your story must take listeners from where they are now to where they need to be, with enough comfort and focus on your vision of the future.

The Vision Story takes some courage, says Annette Simmons in her book, ‘The Story Factor.’ Its purpose is to “shrink today’s frustration in light of the promise of tomorrow.” The process for change and perspective should be modeled in the story, as in the bricklayer’s parable: all three construction works are doing the same job, but when asked, one says, ‘I’m laying bricks.’ The second says, ‘I’m building a wall.’ And the third says, ‘I’m building a cathedral.” Your focal point has to include affirmation of the process in all three jobs, while guiding their thinking and activities toward the vision of the completed cathedral.

Empowering the Listener

Empowering the listener to visualize the transformation needed in their own work in order to accomplish this vision, and then to act on it, can be achieved by exposing your own motivation toward the change. At what moment did you know things had to change, why? Frame that experience as an obstacle for which you have discovered a solution. What if the solution works? Paint for the listener how things will look once the solution is realized. Make it subjective, from the fountain of passion that brought you to this business in the first place. Lead the listener into the future with a vaguely detailed strategy of how victory over such road blocks will champion any innovations already realized, that progress is in the process of evolution, as a team.

Steve Denning, author of ‘Squirrel Inc.’ knows from his experience at World Bank that “people are more likely to overcome uncertainty about change if they are shown what to aim for rather than what to avoid.” By making your story overwhelmingly positive, with the problem right up in the foreground, you’re presenting yourself as a protagonist in the narrative of the company as a whole. The biggest mistake storyteller’s make? Spelling out the lesson. The take-away should ONLY BE IMPLIED. Trust the listener to their own deductions.

Concerns

Some concerns to watch out for when constructing your vision story:

Specific predictions about the future are likely to not come true

Authenticity depends on your knowledge & life experience

Your detractors might take the story out of context

Your Potential

You have enormous potential to change the minds of your followers, that’s the business you are business truly in! The secret is to learn this method as a way to support the rational analysis that is ever present. Lean on your human intuition born millions of years ago in caves, gathered around the camp fire recanting the days adventures. We’re all hunters and gatherers deep down.

Your followers will rise with abundant energy, mirroring your own, prepared to retell your story whenever they encounter an associate who needs a boost. With storytelling in your tool bag, you’ll now be able to harness your own imagination, and tether it to your company’s evolutiononward and upward!

Sherry Minnard Rappaport, MSc is CEO of Pinckney Partners, a consultancy of creativity practioners. She works to discover new applications that deliberately and creatively evolve professionals, their work groups, and their organizations. Sherry is the founder of Boston’s chapter American Creativity Association, http://www.amcreativityassoc.org She can be reached at Sherry@PinckneyPartners.com.

All players, when they are concentrating on a stroke, are in some respects mad; for a second they become monomaniac; you are possessed with an idea that is fixed in your mind; your singleness of purpose is absolute if you really are concentrating. And I cannot imagine how anything can disturb them unless they allow it to. If this does happen, then, in my opinion, you cannot be giving your whole mind to the stroke, you aren’t concentrating.

When you are out on the course there are many minor distractions that you may encounter, from coughing or sneezing, all the way up to load and obnoxious crowds or players. But once a player gets into the habit of being put off their game by these little worries, you are unlikely to make any progress in the game, and you run the risk of wandering around the course looking for things at which to be annoyed, actually seeking them. Few golfers realize that their game cannot stand still, whether their handicap is scratch, eight, or eighteen; their standard of play must progress or retrogress, improve or deteriorate, according to the amount they play or practice.

In connection with this notion, a friend of mine suggests the obliteration from the mind of a bunker that is directly in the line of play. I might say (but I have not any intention of doing so) that my friend has chosen the wrong word. My argument is this: Was the player who landed in the bunker thinking of the bunker when he played his stroke, or was the golfer imagining that it was quite likely that the ball would land in the bunker?

By a law to which there are no exceptions, the will yields to the imagination. As an illustration of this, any one can walk along a plank a foot in width when it is lying on solid earth; but place that plank across the two trestles of a bridge, twenty feet up in the air, and not one person in twenty will walk calmly across it, because they imagine that they are likely to fall off! Undoubtedly this player in the aforementioned match actually imagined the ball hopping into the bunker, and that was the last conscious act before making the fatal stroke.

Can there be any other meaning to the word concentration, in a mental sense, than a focusing of the attention? And further, can you focus your attention on such a thing as a golf ball? I answer these questions with another question: Doesn’t the golfer focus his attention, not on the ball itself, but on some action connected with the ball? I grant you that you can concentrate on a golf ball, on the size of it, on its marking, or on the dents you may have made in it, but no player wishes to do this in the middle of a close match. So that when a golfer is “concentrating on the ball,” he or she is in reality concentrating on the stroke they are about to make. The golfer is focusing their attention on the desire to put the ball as near the hole as possible; and can it be doubted that the average golfer starts concentrating on the second shot long before he or she reaches the ball? This appears to me to be a fatal policy. It is well enough for a golfer to plan the method of play for the whole of any particular hole when they are on the tee, and yet I do not think that even this is a good plan. You may hit your tee shot, “as per schedule,” only to find that your ball is reposing in an old divot mark and that it is thus quite impossible to use a the proper club for your second shot. So the whole of your concentration is wasted.

The ideal method of playing golf is not to use your mind until you have to. When you reach your ball, concentrate as hard as you can, for upon your powers of concentration your next stroke depends. I have said, in common with every other writer on the game that hesitation is fatal, but it seems to me desirable that I should now amplify that statement. “Those who hesitate are lost,” because they aren’t concentrating. If you concentrate hard enough you cannot hesitate, provided you are clear about what you are concentrating on.

© 2005 BlackCash Enterprises, LLC - All Rights Reserved

Jarrod Cash and Michael Black have created “The Lost Golf Secrets Collection” available at: http://www.LostGolfSecrets.com

Are You Too Busy Practicing Your Swing to Improve Your Game? Stop Playing Golf the Hard Way!

Here is a step by step guide for buyers looking to buy a condo in any area. These are important tactics to make a solid and accurate judgement on the property you’re looking to purchase.

- When purchasing a condominium make sure that you ask for the last three to six months of the condominium minutes. This infomation will provide you with alot of insight into what is happening in the building.

- Obtain a copy of the Declaration, the bylaws, and any rules and regulations from the Condo Association.

- To make sure you are buying into a financially sound building, it is also advisable to find out if the building has any outstanding loans with a bank. Some buildings may take out loans instead of doing a special assessment as a way of doing major work such as new elevators or the exterior facade of the building.

- Make sure you obtain a statement from the Condo Association of any capital expenditures anticapted by the Board within the current or succeeding two fiscal years.

- Find out from the Condo Association if there are any pending suits or judgements in which the Board is a party.

- If the building is newer, find out if the parking is deeded or assigned and whether you can sell it to a purchaser outside the building .Also, make sure you see the exact location of the garage spot before you write a contract to purchase the property.

- Buildings with substantial reserves and lower assessments tend to appreciate at a faster rate than other buildings in a similiar location. Keep in mind that assessments are based on how many amenities are in the building.

- Resale in six flats tend to have better resale value than three flats. The rationale is that a six flat unit is a wider unit since it is constructed on a 50 x 125 foot lot.

- The more horizontal a unit is the more apt it will have better resale value. Vertical units tend to have more hallways and typically do not have split bedrooms.

- The higher the ceilings in a unit the larger the unit will feel. Most people typically prefer 9 foot ceilings or higher hence the height of the ceilings will usually effect resale.

About The Author

Sheldon Salnick is a Realtor with Rubloff Residential Properties. He has worked with new construction buyers for the last 13 years and has represented over $200 million in new construction. For more information or guidance in the purchase of a new construction home, townhome or condominium please visit http://www.SheldonChicago.com.

info@SheldonChicago.com